#jeckle and dean

[xlr8nrg]

[jeckleanddean]

Friday April 9 2017, the day Saileen became canon.

[juzzypotter]

‘Regarding Dean’

When Supernatural is good it is great. I mean, this episode hit all the right notes for me in all the right places without being heavy-handed. Meredith Glynn knocked it out of the park, and Jared and Jensen delivered some of their best acting (by this point it’s just a delight to watch them be brother week in and week out because they’re just so at ease with it). 

‘Regarding Dean’ managed to be delightfully funny - and Jensen really ran with the comedy that he is so adept at - whilst being meaningful and contributing to the boys’ story. Memory-less Dean had this child-like naiveté that seemed more like four year old Dean hearing about this as a bedtime story from his dad. The Scooby Doo cartoon and the ‘”awesome”. Then in contrast, the fourth-wall-breaking-my-name-is... scene in front of the mirror was beautiful and heartbreaking and reduced me to a pathetic bucket of tears. And Sam was the BIG BROTHER in this episode. To see him fully step into the role of big brother was a delight and really hit some emotional chords, especailly when he was talking to Dean in the the bathroom. Stunning. Lore, family, comedy, a classic MOTW - perfection.

All of this was driven home by that stunning ‘Broomstick Cowboy’ montage a the end. (Kudos to John Badham on a stunningly directed episode, especially the opening scene, montage, mirror scene and bathroom scene).

Honestly, this may be one of my favourite episodes of all time and one of the best filler episodes in the history of the show.

[arplis]

Arplis - News: The old Green Lantern battery is running on low, as we’ve almost reached the present, so it’s time to wind down this review of non-career superheroes and their various exploits and follie

s. While time, however, is running out, the creative spark still continues to flow through several recent productions, bringing back classic characters in new powerful misadventures. To start things off on a highly positive note, we’ll first review a couple of episodes from Pink Panther and Pals, the most recent (and one of the best) revivals of the DePatie-Freleng franchise. While Panther is visibly modified into a junior adolescent form, his spirit and pantomme humor remain intact, and comic inventiveness continues to excel. This is also true of the revival of his stablemates, the Ant and the Aardvark, one of whose episodes shall be the first examined. In Zeus Juice (3/7/10), Aardvark is having more trouble than usual keeping up with Ant (who in this incarnation has the personality of a wise-cracking Chris Rock instead of a Dean Martin drawl, though Aardvark retains his Joey Bishop persona), as ant prides himself on working out, and claims to be the speediest thing in the jungle. Before he can build up his muscles, Aardvark realizes he must develop muscles to build up. So he goes on line looking on the web for a quick-fix muscle builder. He encounters an ad for a super-juicer – a mixmaster with recipes guaranteed to provide super strength and vitality. Purchasing the product, Aardvark first tries a mixture to produce legs of steel – a concoction of fruit juices and fish oils. At first, nothing – then his legs begin to swell, and his feet start pounding the turf of their own volition. His legs take off like the Road Runner, with Aardvark’s long nose trailing helplessly behind on the ground. He finally manages to come to a stop, conveniently at the door to ant’s anthill. A pound on the ground from his “thunder thighs” jostles Ant out of his bath and up the hole, where he sees the new physique of his adversary. Racing for dear life, Ant looks back and reacts, “He’s a freak of nature. I can’t outrun that freight train.” Instead, Ant hides begind a rock – a few feet from the edge of a cliff. Aardvark sees the cliff coming, and tries his best to stop, skidding until he is hanging onto the cliff with his arms, his legs danging over the edge. “You know what he needs?”, comments Ant, “Ant-i lock brakes.” As Aardvark grabs Ant with his nose, Ant climbs up Aardvark’s face and yanks on his ear, which acts as an ignition key to stat Aardvark’s legs again. Aardvark is pulled by the sheer speed of his legs off the cliff face and onto mid-air. Looking down in horror, Aardvark tells us, “Next time, I’ll use flying fish oil.” As he falls, Ant meanders home, stating “I better call somebody to clean that up.” If at first you don’t succeed. Aardvark’s next recipe is for super-vision. His eyes develop red swirls – and suddenly fire a laser beam at his front door, leaving a charred hole. “Suddenly I’m in the mood for a barbecue”, he says. He arrives at ant’s home, and invites him to come out to observe his “new look”. Ant believes Aardvark’s been eating too many jalapenos, which would account for the red swirlies in his eyes. But a blast from Aardvark’s lasers blackens the surface of the anthill. “After all this time, it looks like you finally got me”, says Ant. “Go ahead, fry me.” Aardvark revs up his eyes for a fatal blow, but Ant produces a mirror at the last split second – and the reflected beam chars Aardvark’s head to a powder. “I’d stay out of the sun if I were you”, retorts Ant. “Your head looks a little well done.” Recipe #3: Super smell. Aardvark’s already pronounced nose develops biceps of its own, prompting Ant to inquire if his sinuses are acting up. Aardvark turns on his vacuum power at super level – but only succeeds in sucking himself into his own nose, rolling him up like a pill bug. “Hey, you need a ride home?” asks Ant, giving him a kick to roll him back to his cave. Recipe #4: Since physical strength has failed, how about a super mind? Aardvark returns to Ant’s hill with lobes swollen five times their normal size. Ant inquires, “It looks like that hurts.” “Well, a little”, responds Aardvark, “…but enough already! Now you’ll never outsmart me.” So ant instead poses him a question he’s been pondering for years: “Why can’t you ever catch me?” The old unanswerable question trope strikes again, and, as Ant produces an umbrella to avoid the splatter, Aardvark’s head explodes. Aardvark is finally through with the juicer, dumping it in the trash can. He returns to the ant hill, vowing to get his meal the good old fashioned way. Turning on his vacuum nose, he miraculously sucks out the Ant on the first try. “I did it. It’s a miracle”, shouts Aardvark. Suddenly, from inside his nose, Aardvark is repeatedly judo flipped. Out of his nose emerges Ant – buffed like a miniature Hercules, thanking Aardvark for turning him on to the juicer. Aardvark lays prone on the ground, and closes with the line, “Next time I’m hungry, I’ll order pizza.” Pink! Pow! Kaboom! (Pink Panther and Pals, 8/13/10) – Pink Panther faces the same dilemma as Bart Simpson in an earlier post in this series – an irresistible collector’s comic in a comics store window – and only a buck to his name. When proprietor Big Nose (who’s priced the collectible with a tag reading “$$$”) sees Pink’s single bill, not only does he respond with humiliating laughter, but for the price hands Pink a stack of blank paper and a pencil – draw your own. Ponk returns home, and sets to work from the inside out – leaping onto the paper itself, drawing a box around him, and filling in the details as he goes. He draws in a city – but finds it inhabited by a humongous green monster, who begins a destructive rampage. Pink realizes he holds the upper hand, as his pencil is equipped with an eraser, and begins to erase the giant’s toes. The giant flings him into the skies with a snap of his fingers. Pink counters by drawing a super suit around himself (some padding might have helped, as it deflates from muscular build to his puny skinny form the moment after it is drawn). Pink begins some playful fun with the monster, drawing two windows in mid-air so he can pop in and out of them. When the giant looks in, Pink pencils his face with clown make-up, then holds up a mirror to emphasize the embarrassment. Pink next pulls a “Duck Amuck” tribute, changing the backgrounds behind the monster in mid-chase, causing him to slide on ice into a snowdrift (leaving a hole in the snow in the silhouette of a jackass), then coming out the other side as a giant snowman. Pink changes the background again to a desert scene, and melts the giant’s snow away. He draws and offers to the perspiring giant a huge glass of water – then renders his need totally unnecessary by drawing him into the middle of the ocean. Pink flushes him away by pulling a plug, returning the background to a cityscape. The giant returns from the sewer, but Pink crosses him out with the pencil and redesigns him as a baby in a baby carriage. But even a baby monster has powers, and the creature lets out with a super-bawl that has the power of an atom bomb – sending the entire comic book blasting through Pink’s roof, to land outside on a city sidewalk. Back in the comic, Pink finds himself prone on the ground, and the giant somehow regrown to his original form. On top of that, the giant has taken Pink’s supersuit, and tears the suit in half. The giant generates a force field from his fists, which encircles Pink – and from which emerge an army of giants like himself. Still wielding the pencil, Ponk faces the situation with determination, and a heroic glint in his eye, as the camera angles change to a tribute to anime. Swinging the pencil like a Samurai, Pink erases giant after giant in a ferocious battle – until the street is cleared, save the original monster, for a final showdown. With a roar, the monster charges at Pink, and Pink charges at the monster. They meet in the center, Pink wildly swinging his pencil. Pink lands unharmed, but the point breaks off his pencil tip. The giant chuckles fiendishly – but looks down to find his parts separated from each other by broad strokes of emptiness from the eraser. With a clatter, he disassembles and falls in a heap of parts to the ground. Pink has reached the last panel on the comics page, and exits the completed book. As fate would have it, the sidewalk on which the comic landed is right outside Big Nose’s shop, as Big Nose returns to open up. He spies the new comic on the ground, and is impressed by its artwork. He reaches into his pocket for some cash for a purchase – but Pink insists on a trade – for the collector’s item in the window. Reluctantly, Big Nose can’t resist, and the rare prize becomes the panther’s own. Inside the shop. Big Nose settles down to read Pink’s masterwork, when the huge green hand of the monster emerges from its pages and hauls Big Nose inside, the pages closing as thuds, thumps, and leaping pages denote the battle resuming all over again within. Then there is Garfield (as promised from last week’s article). He’s undergone some considerable changes in recent times – the first being a move to CGI (in a few feature films, and then in a series of direct to video features starting with Garfield Gets Real). Garfield’s Pet Force (6/16/09) is one of these, and not very super at all. Some primary problems of this feature series were as follows. First, instead of keeping Garfield rooted in reality, he, Jon and Odie are now residents of Cartoon World, outwardly aware of their fictional nature, something like Heckle and Jeckle. (One particularly good line results from this, in a scene where Garfield is twisted like a spiral in a torture device, but feeling no pain – “I’m a cartoon character. I do squash and stretch for a living.”). Instead of being a career cartoonist, Jon now takes Odie and Garfield to a TV-like studio, where they “film” a comic strip for each issue. And the various animal characters actually talk, and Jon and Liz can understand them, instead of merely being heard by the audience through thought projection. The whole thing is rather unnerving for old-school fans of the show. Top that with the fact that the personalities of two of the principals are altered or watered-down. Garfield still gets jokes on food, fatness, and laziness, but seems to have lost the power to insult or belittle, making no particular zingers about canine stupidity or even Nermal’s ability to aggravate. And Nermal, instead of playing the innocent or thriving on reputation as world’s cutest kitten, now seems to have swapped personalities with Scrappy Doo, just generally diving into trouble. Egad! Plotwise, it’s a convoluted tale of a parallel universe, in which an animal superhero squad are the guardians of the kingdom of a Jon-lookalike monarch, who shares with Jon a complete lack of talent in attracting women. Garfield’s parallel (Garzooka) talks in a resonant superhero voice, is muscular in build, stands about four times taller than Garfield, and is leader of the Pet Force – his powers being super strength, and radioactive hairballs. Odie’s counterpart specializes in stunning blows with his tongue. The counterpart to Arlene (Garfield’s new girlfriend) gives icy stares that freeze her victims in place. And Nermal’s counterpart has super speed. Enter a counterpart to Liz, visiting from another planet. King Jon falls for her instantly, babbling out an instant proposal of marriage. Oddly, she accepts – only for purposes of getting her hands on a set of keys to the royal arsenal, to obtain the kingdom’s latest invention – a molecular scrambler gun that not only mutates its targets into combinations of each other’s parts, but renders them mindless zombies under the shooter’s control. Three of the Pet Force are so mutated, and only Garzooka escapes, nabbing away the Klopman crystal (a counterpart to the original series’ recurring references to the Klopman diamond), which is the scrambling gun’s power source. With the assistance of the gun’s inventor, Garzooka also obtains vials of serum to endow the powers of his mutated comrades to new replacements, and the space coordinates of the only other residents of the galaxy with DNA matches to his fallen comrades. He takes off in a space ship to find the “matches” – Nermal, Odie, and Arlene. Garfield himself gets rather left out of the superhero action (since Garzooka is still in charge), while his friends take the serum and acquire the powers within. Garfield’s only real connection to the storyline is a brief assignment to guard the Klopman crystal – which, despite slipping it into a glass of lemonade as an “ice” cube, is eventually discovered by the villainess who follows Garzooka to Cartoon World. The villainess zombifies most of the population, and orders them to obliterate the Pet Force. The Force heads for a tall tower in the center of town, in hopes of using the structure as a giant harpoon to spear the villainess’s ship, while the zombie army pursues and corners them for a showdown. Garfield finally decides, against his nature, to become “involved”, and, standing on the shoulders of one of the co-workers at the comic-strip studio, devises a Garzooka disguise, luring the zombie army back to the studio to march en masse into a trap door opening to the cellar. The diversion allows the Pet Force to harpoon the ship. The villainess counters by mutating half the buildings in town into a giant metallic monster. Garfield somehow survives the chase, trips up the monster, obtains the ray gun, and mutates the villainess into a “good” girl who apologizes and accepts the position as loving queen. The film tells a story, yes – it’s just not a Garfield story. The Garfield Show, a more recent revival, at least returns the characters to the contemporary suburbs. However, it retains from the prior incarnation the animal characters continuing to talk with actual lip movements. It compromises a bit back toward the old days, striving for a halfway poont between the original and the non-abrasive Garfield, and between the “cute” verses the proactive Nermal. Super Me (12/21/09) – Garfield and Nermal watch the television adventures of hero “Ultra Powerful Guy”. Garfield as usual won’t share his snacks with Nermal during the viewing, and yields the bag of potato chips only when its contents have been emptied. Nermal stands up for himself, telling Garfield he doesn’t need his snacks, as he can get them all by himself. “This I gotta see”, said Garfield. Nermal seats himself on the sidewalk, and puts on his most adorable cute-kitten face and irresistible meows. A car stops abruptly, its occupants mesmerized by Nermal’s cuteness – and they just can’t resist handing over to Nermal an entire pepperoni pizza with mushroms and Canadian bacon. Garfield’s jaw drops in amazement, as he races over to get a share of the take. But now it’s Nermal who claims to have nothing left to share. Garfield complains that he’d bet Nermal would share if Ultra Powerful Guy were around – then states to the audience, “Idea happening.” Fashioning a supersuit out of old clothes from Jon’s closet, Garfield follows Nermal to a phone booth where Nermal is looking up local cat shows to win, and props a broom against the booth door, trapping Nermal inside. He then dives on the broom from the roof of the booth in his outfit as Ultra Powerful Guy, making a “rescue”. Nermal reacts in disbelief that Ultra Powerful Guy is so short and round in build, but feels indebted to him in view of the timely rescue. Garfield convinces Nermal that superheroes need to eat, too, and suggests as a reward that Nermal turn on some of his “cute” magic to drum up an entree. Nermal repeats his performance at the curbside, and stops another motorist in his tracks, who just happens to have a heaping plate of spaghetti and meatballs. This reward suits Garfield fine. After devouring it, he notes “You know what goes great after spaghetti for desert? Anything!” He rigs another rescue of Nermal, pushing a trash dumpster to roll down a steep hill. Garfield rides atop the dumpster to issue a timely warning for Nermal to get out of the way. At the foot of the hill, two would-be bank robbers debate holding up the bank, but are fearsome that Ultra Powerful Guy might be in the vicinity. On cue, Garfield’s trash dumpster reaches the end of the line, and Garfield falls inside the trash. Garfield emerges with a banana draped over his head, noting that this never happens to Batman. He removes his soiled mask – and the crooks believe they’ve just witnessed the hero’s true secret identity – a fat cat. Unafraid, they decide the time is ripe for bank robbery after all. Garfield meanwhile returns to Nermal, demanding a reward of a banana cream pie with chocolate sprinkles. Nermal’s best “cute” face only reaps a chocolate cream pie with banana sprinkles. “Close enough”, saus Garfield. An alarm nearby reveals the crooks making a getaway from the bank. Nermal pyshes a reluctant Garfield forward to apprehend the culprits. The crooks state they are not afraid, as they know Ultra Powerful Guy’s secret and his weakness. They drop before Garfield a catnip mouse. Nermal sees instant hearts, and flips onto his back to play with the toy. Garfield isn’t affected in the least, and states that nect time, they should try stuffing the mouse with lasagna. Their plan not working, the crooks head for their getaway car, catching Garfield’s cape in the door. Another predicament Garfield insists would never happen to Batman. Garfield is dragged down the street, frantically yelling for assistance and to let him off at the earliest opportunity. But who should arrive to stop the getaway, but Ultra Powerful Man himself, thanking Garfield for delaying the crooks long enough for him to arrive. Nermal catches up to congratulate the hero on the amazing capture – then notes that there are now two of them. He asks which is the real one, and both Garfield and the hero chime in unison “I am”. “Now c’mon, that’s not fair”, says Nermal, and asks them again. “I am” comes the simultaneous reply. “Aw, really, which one of you is it?” Garfield and the hero exchange winks, as they are starting to enjoy this, and for the remainder of the night, continue to frustrate Nermal with their united response of “I am”. The Amazing Flying Dog (12/22/09) seems more aimed at the younger viewers than usual, attempting to build a meager plotline about Odie’s daydreams of being a caped superhero and flying to the rescue of a cute poodle he has his eyes on. His daydreams include a rescue of the pooch from a burning building (using flying power to pull her from a fiery balcony, and ice breath to blow out the fire), and from the passenger seat of a car careening without brakes backwards down a steep hill. Garfield keeps waking him from his dreams, and eventually breaks it to him that “Dogs can’t fly!” Then Garfield tries to cross a road under construction, and his feet get caught in fresh asphault. The poodle tries to rescue Garfield, and gets stuck too. Here comes the steamroller. Odie hears the calls for help, and gives one last try to jumping off the roof. His ears extend, and he soars aeronautically like Dumbo, swooping in to make a nick of time rescue. Garfield turns to the audience, asking in complete puzzlement, “Did you see…” – and then awakes from his own dream about Odie. The episode peacefully ends, with the nagging question of what is life, and what is reality? The Caped Avenger Rides Again (9/10/12) – Jim Davis expected a long memory from his viewers, harkening back in this installment to his original “Caped Avenger” from 1988 previously reviewed in these articles – without barely so much as a recap to establish Garfield’s previous venture into superherodom. Jon is making a personal appearance at a comic book store to sign autographs, and Garfield brings along his Caped Avenger outfit just in case. To no viewer’s surprise, nobody shows up for Jon’s nom de plume. The store proprietor, an old-timer in the business, is disappointed at the lack of turnout, and says he’s tries everything to drum up buisiness, but attendance has slipped off drastically. He even has a rare first edition comic on display as another attraction, but still no interest. The comic isn’t even his – only there on a loan from its owner, with the condition that an armed guard be posted on duty at all times. Mysteriously, when everyone is engaged in conversation, a crash is heard. The front window is broken, and the guard seemingly knocked unconscious, with the rare first edition gone. Upon reviving the guard, he claims the assailant wore a mask, and can provide no detailed description. Garfield reverts to his Caped Avenger costume to play amateur sleuth, and Odie joins him in the same Superman style outfit used in the 1988 episode, as his sidekick, Slurp (Garfield lifting a line of dialogue straight out of the original cartoon, that the sidekick must never dress better than the superhero). They skulk through some back alleys for clues, as the film suddenly becomes slightly 2D for a flashback to provide an origin story (much in the way cutaway sequences were used in some of the “Power Pig” episodes for side-trips in the storyline of the original show). A few reasonable gags appear in the flashback. Garfield searches for an image that will strike fear in the hearts of the criminal element, so fashions his first costume as his own scariest nightmare – a pizza with anchovies. Not very effective. Converting to proper attire, the Avenger and Slurp hit the streets. Hearing a citizen’s cries of a despicable – and dangerous – villain robbing the bank, Garfield decides this is a job for – his sidekick, and tells Odie to look him up when it’s over in Bermuda. But the robber (a lobster-clawed supervillain) blocks Garfield’s attempt to exit carrying a surfboard. Garfield tries to convince the villain to give up, in view of Garfield’s devastating super powers. Garfield demonstrates super speed by running clear around the world – arriving back about a minute later, completely winded, and complaining that he was held up in a traffic jam in Luxembourg. Garfield demonstrates super strength by lifting the heaviest object in the vicinity – himself – eventually losing his grip, as he acknowledges “Jon was right, I do need to lose a few pounds.” Instead of surrendering, the villain throws Garfield through a brick wall. As Garfield notices the stray bricks on his side of the wall, something clicks in his memory, and he reverts back to reality, returning with Odie to the shop. The glass of the broken window is outside, not inside the store, indicating that the thief nroke the window from the inside. The security guard is spotted attempting to sneak out of the store – with comic book hidden inside his coat. An obligatory chase (in which Garfield uncharacteristically runs at a speed far beyond the expected velocity of an overweight cat) leads to a blind alley, with an inclined board the only route over a fence. Garfield and Odie find it first, and lay a trap. As the guard mounts the board to leap over the wall, Garfield and Odie position a trash dumpster on the other side, then slam its lid down as the guard lands inside, Garfield sitting on the lid to prevent the guard’s escape. The police make the arrest, the comic book is retruned, and the comics store has a new attraction that finally draws customers – the Caped Avenger in person. Garfuels asides to the audience, “Batman, eat your heart out.” The Superhero Apprentice (9/10/12) – Last time, we were expected to remember an episode from 1988. This time, we’re unbelievably supposed to forget a central plot point from the previous episode in the same half-hour! All memory is supposed to disappear that Odie has already been used twice as a sidekick. The comic book store has been saved by the publicity of the Caped Avenger’s solving of the comic book mystery, and its proprietor has invested in an expected shipment of Avenger action figures, which has fans lined up around the block awaiting delivery. Footage of the Avenger’s capture of the criminal (now how did they happen to have camera shots of the dumpster capture in the blind alley?) has gone viral, only eclipsed by a #1 video of the world’s cutest singing kitten – Nermal. But Nermal fears the Avenger’s popularity is striking too close to home, and might topple him from the #1 berth. Meanwhile (ignoring Odie’s previous involvement in the chase and capture), the comic book guy reveals in a news interview that consensus of fan opinion is that the Avenger should take on a sidekick. Garfield ponders this as a serious issue, realizing all the past great heroes had sidekicks. Odie prances around, demonstrating his willingness to join up – but choosy Garfield instead holds open interviews for the position. All applicants disappear after Garfield lets slip that they’ll be placing their life on the line for no pay. One runaway (a Chihuahua) encounters dejected Nermal, and the dog’s costume gives Nermal the idea that the only way to counter a superhero is with a supervillain. Nermal recruits the dog as his own assistant, and acquires a wrestling mask and cape as a disguise for himself. That night, the newly-evil duo doctor a “bat-signal” for the Avenger outside the comics store, to make the Avenger’s image paunchy and ridiculous. They also show up at the unveiling of the action figures. Garfield, however, also arrives, having seen video footage of the attack on his signaler, and, sensing a need for assistance, has finally relented and hired Odie as his partner “Slurp”. The delivery of the figures is interrupted by the Chihuahua nipping at the truck driver’s heels, while Nermal commandeers the truck, with just one catch – he doesn’t know how to drive. The truck takes off on a downhill road, with puny Nermal clinging to the spinning steering wheel, unable to reach the brakes. Garfield pursues, stumbling on a street trash can and running atop it like a log roller, finally thrown onto the roof of the moving truck. The truck crashes into the fence of a trash collection center, throwing Garfield and Nermal over the fence and into a chute for trash disposal. Inside, they face a conveyor belt of chopping and shredding contraptions, with a flattening wheel at the end of the belt. Garfield and Nermal race against the speed of the belt to keep from being pressed into pizzas. Odie appears, looking through a hatchway above. Garfield calls him for “doggie tongue”, and Odie lowers his long appendage down the hole, where Garfield grabs it like a rescue rope, and also grabs Nermal, with Odie hauling them out to safety, a split second before Nermal’s cape would have dragged him into the machinery. For all their effort, the action figures fail to sell, as now all public attention has shifted to Slurp, with footage of his rescue taking the #1 web slot, knocking Nermal’s video out of the lead once and for all. Nermal decides to take his meow-singing act to the streets, and Garfield, also through with superheroing, joins him. The Looney Tunes Show was all about a tenuous marriage of media – the Looney Tunes gang, in a contemporary “Friends” style new millennium sitcom? While occasionally generating a winning situaion, there usually seemed to me a certain uneasiness at pressing the characters into “everyday” situations. (I’ve wondered if the group might have been better-fitted to a 1960’s sitcom. Imagine Bugs and Lola Bunny as Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. Daffy and his girlfriend as Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie. And Elmer Fudd as Richard Deacon. For a son, we could even revive Clyde from “His Hare-Raising Tale”.) However strange the series may have been on the whole, the writers found a combination of genres that clicked for their series finale – Super Rabbit (5/23/13) (not to be confused with the original 1943 classic of the same name). Daffy’s looking for quick cash, so raiding through Bugs’ stuff for something to sell. Bugs attempts to guard an old knick-knack (a glass carrot) with a tall tale. “I’m not the bunny you think I am. My real name is Kal El. I was born long ago on the planet Krypton.” Daffy stops him cold. “Krypton? That’s Superman’s home planet. I fell for that once, but I’m way too smart to fall for it again.” Bugs qualifies his statement – “That’s ‘Crypton’ with a ‘C’” – and Daffy buys into the tale, hook, line, and sinker. Bugs spins a yarn of his exploits guarding the city of Metropolis – an adventure unique in its presentation, retaining much of the zaniness of the Looney Tunes stars while telling in the background of the action a pretty straightforward Superman story, complete with all the dark backgrounds and elaborate special effects that have become standard to the Warner DC Universe. It succeeds in coming off as the best of both worlds. Bugs has a comic exploit outwitting Marvin the Martian as Braniac (including a visually-inventive scene with Bugs taking pot-shots at Marvin with his own miniaturizing-enlarging ray, until every part of Marvin has eigher expanded gigantically or shrunken substantially. ‘I’m a regular Pablo Picasso”, says Bugs. He next tackles Elmer Fudd as Lex Luthor, eventually blasting him out of his supersuit and leaving him only a pair of striped shorts, and kicking the remains of Luthor’s armor into space. But Elmer informs Bugs that he has just succeeded in launching a radioactively unstable generator within the suit into deep space. The suit turns out to be on collision course with the Phantom Zone in which General Zod (Daffy Duck) and two minions (one his girlfriend, the other a robot) have been imprisoned. The blast frees the prisoners, and Zod and his companions plot the conquest of Earth. Amidst a ticker-tape parade, Bugs’s enjoyment of the side-perks of being a hero is interrupted by Zod’s trio. Battling is work for underlings, so Zod leaves his companions in charge to make short work of Super-Rabbit, who is forced to surrender beneath the foot of Zod’s robot. Zod sets up a palace, complete with huge golden idol of himself, and a chorus of slaves who attempt to compose for Zod a new national anthem (“My Country Tis of Thee” played in a minor key with new lyrics hailing Zod). Bugs meanwhile visits the Fortress of Solitude, where the spirit of his father states he had his defeat coming, as he had softened under the effects of showboating for the attentions of fame rather than fighting for the right. Bugs is advised to learn the adversaries’ weaknesses, and make them his own strengths. Making an entrance at Zod’s palace as reporter Clark Kent, Bugs deduces that Zod’s girlfriend is constantly being put down by him, while the robot is treated by Zod as a brainless infant. Revealing himself for battle, Bugs puts in the right words of flattery to each of the minions in the course of the fray, acquiring friends among Zod’s ranks. He finally confronts Zod polishing his statue, and when Zod orders his cohorts to attack, they step away, leaving Zod to battle alone. An epic confrontation on a Superman scale follows, with laser eye beams cutting buildings in half, vehicles thrown as weapons, and a flying chase through the tunnels of a subway. Bugs finally outmaneuvers Zod upon his emergence from the tunnels, grabbing Zod’s cape from behind and flinging him into his own golden statue. As Zod lies dazed at the foot of his own image, Bugs says, “Hey Doc, kneel before yourself”, then uses his laser vision to cut through the base of the statue. As the statue collapses, Zod, seeing it about to topple, screams “I’m going to hurt me!” Then crash! – and Bugs stands alone. Concluding his story to Daffy, Bugs claims he banished Zod and his minions to another Phantom Zone, then gave up his powers, realizing power corrupts. This is where Daffy suspends his belief in the story – feeling that no one would give up such power and super-goodies – and leaves to hock Bugs’s stuff anyway to finance his date for the evening. The scene changes to a movie theatre, playing “The Mark of Zorro”. Daffy and his date, dressed in what appears to be period attire, decide to save a ridiculously small number of seconds getting back to their car by going down a dark alley. Fans of Batman can see what’s coming a mile away – a Crime Alley accosting by a hoodlum. Who should arrive to save the day but – Bat-Rabbit. The hero hands pearls back to Daffy’s date, while Daffy offers no reward, since he didn’t specifically ask to be saved anyway. As the ducks leave, Bat-Rabbit reveals himself to us as Bugs, delivering in his best impersonation of Kevin Conroy his own signature line, “Ain’t I a stinker?” While I’m usually a fan of Rowan Atkinson in his appearances in person on big or small screen, I’m rather underwhelmed by his “Mr. Bean” animated series. Superhero Bean (2/22/16) is little more than a time-filler, with no actual powers whatsoever, merely chronicling Bean’s costumed attempts to trail a domestic burglar on the rooftops. Not a genuinely funny moment in the whole slow-paced episode. Super-Wacky (Cartoon Network, Wacky Races (revival),10/29/18) tries to pack a lot in, but forgets entirely that the premise of the show is to conduct races – instead devising a far-out plot on the personalities of the show’s characters alone. Peter Perfect rules the roost as the superhero guardian of a city, until one day he faces the challenge of – superhero oversaturation. Suddenly, all the current Wacky Racers (excepting Dastardly and Muttley) have transformed into superheroes too, and want in on a piece of the city’s action. In competition with Petet’s super chin-laser, Penelope Pitstop flies, turns everything she touches pink (as she admits, more of a curse than a power), and carries a radioactive lasso that makes anyone caught in it utter bad puns. I.Q. (junior counterpart to Professor Pat Pending) is half cyborg, with a robotic arm that often acts out of control with a mind of its own. The Gruesome Twosome have bat powers and invisibility. Meanwhile, Dick Dastardly is Wackopolis’s resident super villain, with a head swollen with psychic powers to control minds, and Muttley possesses a sonic snicker that can bring down walls. Dastardly hypnotizes the mayor to outlaw super-heroes, but the racers plot their strategy to bring her out of it. Part of the plan is to round up “the best team of heroes the legal department will let us use on this show”. The open auditions attract an overflow of old Hanna-Barbera stars, including Snagglepuss, Rosie the Robot, Space Ghost, Hong Kong Phooey, Winnie Witch, and Jabberjaw (this on top of a one-shot cameo for Quick Draw McGraw as El Kabong in the opening scene). All the applicants flunk out (Snagglepuss even exiting stage right), leaving the original racers to forge on alone. They head for the mayor’s office, and battle an army of flying Muttley robots (a harken back to Muttley’s rotor tail flying in “Dastardly and Mettley in Their Flying Machines”). Then, taking the battle to Dastardly’s lair (which Peter had a map to all the time), the group, except for Peter, succumb to Dastardly’s mind control, until Peter reminds them of the greater strength of their super-friendship. Muttley carries Dastardly to an escape as the racers break freee of his brainwashing – but Dastardly returns in the final frames of the episode at the helm of a giant town-stomping robo-Muttley. The racers launch into the fray again, and are stopped in a freeze frame for “The End” and a last insertion of a merchandising advertisement for their super products. Snowball, the rebellious rabbit who led a revolution against the human race in 2016‘s The Secret Life of Pets, undergoes a nearly complete personality transformation to keep him in the storyline in The Secret Life of Pets 2 (6/7/19). His new little girl owner is into superhero shows, and dresses him in a miniature mask, suit and cape as “Captain Snowball”. Snowball adapts to the new role, now determined to be the protector of the world rather than its overthrower, and incorporates his love of kung fu moves into the act. A short 2D segment provides the closest to superpowers he demonstrates, including socking a bad guy through the side of several buildings, and an ultrasonic roar. In real life, minus anything but his own speed and fight moves, he becomes involved in a rescue mission to save a rare white tiger who is being abused by a sinister circus owner determined to train him to perform death defying feats. Snowball must outwit a quartet of wolves who serve as guards to keep the tiger in and strangers out (including a humorous chase through various midway attractions), release the tiger from its cage, and attempt to find the tiger a hiding place in the apartments of the big city. Eventually, the whole cast of the franchise are drawn into the action, as the wolves and circus owner close in, and tranquilize the tiger, transporting him back to the circus train. Snowball uses an RC vehicle to catch up with the train, and engages in a battle of fisticuffs with the circus owner’s maniacal monkey, climaxed by shooting the monkey out of a cannon. Snowball and several of the other pets, together with the tiger, gang up on the villain in the engineer’s cab, and the tiger is eventually freed, and finds a new home amongst the flock of felines in the apartment of a neighboring cat lady. Just as Snowball is content and confident in his life as a superhero, his little girl changes his outfit to fit her latest craze – dressing him as a fairy godmother. Snowball surprisingly accepts the role with glee, confident that he can face any new challenge after surviving the last one. (A direct to video short, “Super Gidget”, released on the home editions of the feature, was unavailable for review – anyone with nformation on it is invited to comment below.) DarkBat (8/29/19), from New Looney Tunes, is an interesting character mashup. Hubie and Bertie (together with an unknown fat mouse who seems to be new to the series) run a fruit stand for mice with the spillage from a human fruit stand, trading for cheese as currency. They are set upon by an unusual posse of cats – Sylvester, Claude Cat, and Pete Puma, in what may be their first onscreen meeting. But to the rescue comes the unexpected arrival of a small winged caped crusader – DarkBat. The deep-voiced vigilante, runs the cats a brief merry chase, landing alternately on their “heads, shoulders, knees and toes” in mimic of a children’s game-song to draw stick blows from the other cats upon whoever he lands on, then playing a game of “whack-a-mole” among the produce with Pete, armed with what DarkBat guarantees is a mallet that will only bash bats, but manages to hit only the other cats instead. Darkbat finally tries the mallet himself, smashing Pete on the head, then declaring, “You’re right. Defective.” With some banana peels, DarkBat caises the three cats to slip into a packing crate, which DearkBat nails shut and labels for delivery to Nome, Alaska. Hubie and Bertie thank DarkBat, but inquire as to his true identity. DarkBat is quite eager to share, pulling off the cowl to reveal the most unlikely choice for a superhero among the classic warner toons – Sniffles the Mouse! In his “can’t sop talking” mode, Sniffles babbles on how isn’t it something, that he can put on this costume, and it lets him do all sorts of crazy things. “Pretty cool, huh?” he asks. “It was until you took the mask off”, aays the fat mouse. But Sniffles flies off into the night (interesting that he would choose to become a bat, when a real bat was the cause of his change to talkative personality in The Brave Little Bat in 1941), while the mice comment that there goes another superhero who’s just a little batty. Writers will again be writers, trying to milk a good one-shot idea for extra episodes. Bonjour, DarkBat (8/29/19) pits Sniffles’ super-alias against Blacque Jacque Shellacque. Unfortunately, with the “cat out of the bag”, so to speak, as to DarkBat’s true identity, the element of surprise for an ending is gone, so the episode has to rely entirely on its gag content to justify itself. Actually, it manages to not fare badly on such count, dealing with a war inside Shelacque’s cheese shop when he wrecks rivals Hubie and Bertie’s curbside cheese wagon. A duel sequence uses everything in the shop as weaponry, from French breads to kitchen utensils down to tasting toothpicks. And the dialogue packs in every bad cheese pun the 4 1/2 minutes can handle – including using a high-pressure Brie dispenser to turn Shellacque into “de-brie”, and DarkBat telling Hubie and Bertie that only the Gouda guys win. Not too shabby an effort. Still funny, but becoming formulaic, is a final installment. Smoothie Operator (1/30/20). Same premise as previous episode, different villain. Yosemite Sam shuts down the mice’s smoothie stand to stop competition with his own. More bad puns on fruits and vegetables. Battles with alternating hot and cold ingredients, and a final chase with a jet-propelled motorcycle. A lot of action, but not as original. I’m sure there’s a few I’ve missed along the way. If anyone has any favorites that didn’t receive print space here, your input below is as always appreciated. The holidays (such as they are) are nearly upon us, and next week, it’s time for celebration – as the song goes, “if only in our dreams”. The post Reign of the Supertoons (Part 11) appeared first on . #Garfield #PinkPanther #AnimationTrails #DaffyDuck

Arplis - News source https://arplis.com/blogs/news/the-old-green-lantern-battery-is-running-on-low-as-we-ve-almost-reached-the-present-so-it-s-time-to-wind-down-this-review-of-non-career-superheroes-and-their-various-exploits-and-follie

[jeckleanddean]

‘The Future’

How can so much and yet so little happen in one episode?

I mean. I don’t even know where to start. There’s Cas suddenly coming back and betraying the fuck out of everyone who knows him and then having like a fucking evangelical conversion to pro-Nephilim because it made him super powerful and helped him kill Daegon. Then there’s Kelly who had a super intense suicide scene (spn tape ball) (also, that was really intense and I’m not sure how to feel about it right now) and then lived and converted to pro-Nephilim and believes that he is a good baby and Cas is his new Dad???. Then there’s Dean and Sam who look gorgeous as normal but on steroids and then looked disappointed af when they were betrayed and then were unconscious when Cas fucking booped them. Then there’s like is this Nephilim going to be born, and is it gonna kill Kelly, and will they bring back the demon-kid, and why was the Heaven story line so short-lived, and why is Jensen so beautiful, and what’s Mary doing, and how are they gonna bring her back, is there gonna be a weird ending with a weird solution, and is someone gonna end up with a baby, are we gonna talk about that??????????????????????????????????????

[jeckleanddean]

‘The British Invasion’

Wow this episode moved at breakneck speed and I’d like to thank Bucklemming for giving me so much story and so much to talk about. I think they really nailed the pacing and just when I thought it was over there was another 10 minutes and I was so excited because I was like ‘10 more minutes of feeeeeels’. 

I’m going to break it down into characters because I feel like that’s gonna work best with the way this was written.

Dean: a simple story. Broing out with his new bro. And now his new bro is killed dead and he’s gonna be PISSED when he finds out. I’m interested to see how he handles this Nephilim storyline.

Sam: I’m gonna go nuts on Sam today because he had me almost in tears about 4 different times during this episode. His chemistry with Eileen was just wonderful and the way he interacts with her is so wonderful. I haven’t really seen Sam connect emotionally with someone like that since Amelia, and I’m so happy for him to find someone in the life who he cares about and is strong and beautiful (like him) but more on Eileen below. Sam deserves someone like Eileen in his life, I’m glad he has her as a friend (and maybe more ;) ). Moreso, he’s always the little brother and being with Eileen he takes on this role as a mentor and protector for Eileen. It’s a beautiful and complex relationships and I need more of it. NEED. Sam’s speech to Mick about doing the right thing by your own code also bordered on preachy BUT from the lips and with the sincerity of Jared Padalecki it was incredible and really moved me - and it clearly moved Mick. 

Eileen: Eileen Leahy is, no secret, one of my favourite characters in the history of supernatural and when I heard she was coming back I was so excited. She is breathtaking as a character. A strong, clever, skilled, beautiful woman who has really stepped into the role of hunter in her own right. I pretty sure I’ve talked about her disability before but to have a disabled, female, ethnic character who is played really organically is such a relief - and all she needs is more screen time. Now to Eileen’s big dilemma - accidental murder. Now, I was not fond of that blonde British weebo as a character, and Eileen was really shooting at Daegon and Daegon pulled a vanishing act on her (props to SFX btw, that scene was cool) so like morally I think the line is not crossed. However, the taking of another relatively innocent human life, and from the sound of it Eileen’s first one, has a huge impact on anyone. I’m glad she decided to go back to Ireand BUT I hope it doesn’t make her an easier target for the BMOL.

Mick: I was just starting to like the guy. Also, they ousted him in the most British way all cold and undramatic.

Mary: I like Mary’s ‘I don’t have to choose’ speech. Even translated out of Hunter context it’s an important concept. And it’s not necessarily about having it all, it’s about the choice and not being dictated too. Also, like ever since she and Ketch shared a “look” a few episodes ago it was clear they were going to take that route but I’m going to be honest I laughed out loud when she pulled what could only be called a Winchester and told him it didn’t mean anything.

Crowley: I’m not sure if he knows what Lucifer’s planning. He pretended not too before and did so i’m waiting to see how this plays out.

Castiel: WHO??? WHAT?????? WHERE?????????????? I mean, they said his name about 27 times but apparently he is not Beetlejuice and he cannot simply be summoned like that. I guess it was to indicate that he’s in some significant strife but maybe and end scene showing us that could have set it up nicely.

Summary: Great episode that really hit the points that last week’s episode lacked. Solid 4.5/5.

[jeckleanddean]

‘Ladies Drink Free’

Let’s review:

The Good. Dad Dean. Always. I mean, I wish Dean Winchester would threaten to punch up any guy who felt me up but that would only be one boy 10 years ago and I mean, fuck that guy, he doesn’t deserve Dean Winchester within 5 metres of him. I think it’s cause Sam cares about everyone but Dean only cares about a few things - and he cares hard about them. It makes him short-sighted, vulnerable and selfish (see ‘Sacrifice’, Season 8) BUT that is countered by the fact he would literally (Literally) do anything for people he’s cares about. That’s the Dean I know and love. 

Other good moments - talking about Garth. Will the BMOL track Garth? Will that be the final straw? If Garth Fitzgerald IV dies I will personally send an envelope of shit to the SPN writers. From Australia. I’m serious.

Referencing Magda because obviously the truth will out. And hopefully the Winchesters will blow the BMOL to shreds.

Normally, I don’t like the character of Claire because (and I try t be understanding and empathetic about her past) she always comes off as whingey and unnecessarily full to the brim with bad attitude. I’m trying to be empathetic, but I actually really enjoyed her in this episode as a character (I’m always in love with Kathryn). I think she serves to remind the boys about what their life was, and what it wold be wihtout each other, and I really glad she sees how incredible the family she has with (MOM) Jodie is.

Also, Adam Fergus is a BABE. I mean, accent, facial hair. Sign me up.

The Bad. The fact that tattoo guy was not the werewolf was SUPER obvious. Even to me. And I always go in not trying to guess anything about anything.

The Ugly. Sam and Dean should have shredded that limey SOB the second they found out about the silver nitrate murder. I mean, this second chance stuff is bullshit unless they’re trying to use the BMOL somehow, or perhaps even to demonstrate that not all monsters are monsters...

Solid 4/5. 80%. A good episode, but missing that final punch in the heart that the best Supernatural episodes have.

[jeckleanddean]

‘Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell’

I realised I never wrote about this episode. 

I think

And tbh it’s probably because it wasn’t particularly memorable BUT in saying that seeing Crowley back to his glorious Devil-trashing ways was a sheer delight. He was terrifying, conniving and brilliant...then he got soft, sappy and lame. Yes, he was bro-ing out with Dean for part of the episode but his face-to-face scenes with Lucifer were brilliant - a real credit to Mark AND Mark.

[jeckleanddean]

‘The Raid’

Now here is a episode that’s gonna end up with a long discourse - not just from me, but it’s already evident that people are picking it apart and for good reason. There are distinct moments- lines, looks- that are really getting into the nitty-gritty of characters we know and love. 

This is not one of my favourite episodes. I’ll say that outright. What I found is that where ‘Stuck in the Middle (With You)’ succeeded in being both a MOTW episode, as well as a lore-episode, ‘The Raid’ failed. It wasn’t bad per say, but compared to the previous three episodes which were stunning it fell flat. Disclosure disclosed, let’s talk about some stuff:

Mary not Mom. Mary not Mom. So I, like everyone else, was on tenterhooks to see the conclusion of the ‘I’m working with the BMOL’ scene. And frankly I was really proud of Dean. He has idolised his absent mother and it definitely took something huge, aka Mary working with the people who tortured Sam and himself, to make him open his eyes - not that she is a bad human, but a bad mother. And frankly, I don’t begrudge her this. The woman got wrenched back from a peaceful Heaven and thrown into a world surrounded by strangers, monsters and dead people she once loved. I wish with all my heart that she could be the mother Dean wanted and Sam needed but she more lost in this world than they can comprehend. For me though, the triumph of this episode was Dean realising that he doesn’t need a mother as he did when he was four, but also that he doesn’t have to be happy about her decisions and choices. It’s a strange place - between freedom and need. 

Samuel Colt Winchester. Now we al know that Sam has a played a huge role as the peaceable factor in Dean’s life. And the whole “pick a side” speech is gonna be a conversation piece in this fandom for a long time. And now we’re faced with the classic storyline of one Winchester is doing what they think is right (or two in this case) and the other has an itemised list of 30 years of arguments as to why they are wrong. I’m really happy to let this storyline play out. I hope Sam is honest with Dean. I hope we’re not treading familiar ground. I also, hope Sam gets more storylines where he is the Boss and gets to run the show because he’s incredible. In this episode, and in ‘Regarding Dean’, he’s shown such wonderful courage and leadership. I want him to be the hero we know he is. I’m not angry at Sam for his choice (I mean, he did pick a side) and I’ll be interested to know if he’s going to play the BMOL. He’s a smart guy, he’ll be fine.

Alpha dispatch. Too easy???

Stop hitting the kids. Dean steps in to stop Ketch beating on a vampire. I mean, we know he isn’t adverse to using torture to get what he needs.. But ya boy has a line when it comes to the defenceless. He’s grown a lot since he was 26. In contrast, Sam and Mary were pretty happy to let a human get tortured/maimed/murdered. Again, I know Dean’s had his fair share of human killing but again, as far as I can remember, it’s been people who have deserved it/he’s been a demon/he’s been under the influence of a supernatural thing. Now it sounds like I’m defending human-killing for Dean Winchester, but not for others (and maybe there’s an unconscious bias) but maybe it’s because I expected more from Sam. I mean, Mary has shown herself to be cold (not a totally bad thing), but Sam. It seems contradictory to work with the BMOL despite torturing you, and then endorse the torturing someone else. C’mon Sammy.

Bye bye lil’ Alpha. I’ll miss him. He was classy and terrifying - the perfect 

[jeckleanddean]

Stuck In The Middle (With You)

Well season 12 just serving them up and knocking them out of the park.

I mean everything about this episode for spine-chillingly excellent. As per usual the boys put in stellar performances - with a special shout out to that cute-in-death Misha Collins who brought me to tears - but I really want to take a second and talk about directing, production and writing, because for me, those were the stand out of this episode.

Directing. So Richard Speight Jnr (aka Gabriel aka King of Con) previously directed 'Just My Imagination’, the delightful, imaginary-friend-and-glitter-blood-filled romp through Sam’s beautiful backstory. And yippee ki yay was this episode in another vein. The polar opposite nature of these two episode really shows of Richard’s directing chops and his creative moxy. The Tarantino-esque style of this episode was to die for. The opening scene stunningly shot. The title cards. The music was to die for and one of my favourite parts of this episode. The multiple viewpoints for each character. (Much of this is credit ti writing as well but that’s a whole new dot point). That last scene had a shot through the window and makes you wonder who, if anyone, is watching Mary deal with the BMOL. Just real clever and stunningly shot scenes. I think Richard really upped the ante for episodes and brought a style and class to the episode, as well as a fresh concept. Obviously, this can’t be recreated every episode but it was a clever idea and not over the top. 

Writing. So writing an episode of Supernatural is not easy. Writing a mythology episode of Supernatural is even harder because there’s 12 years of mythology to understand and the fans will murder you if you mess even one this up (chill, is not a strong suit of this fandom). However, Davy Perez’s writing was like the breath of fresh air you take after being under water. You’re not dying, but you didn’t realise you needed the oxygen. The style. The multiple POVs. The subtle hints, nods and set ups. Really making you suspicious of Mary. Breaking down the reveal slowly. Reintroducing Crowley in a particularly badass and originally conniving way (although did you see him sad when Dean said they don’t need him). Giving us some particularly juicy Crowley backstory. Reintroducing Yellow Eyes. Giving us the Princes of Hell (who have been talked about in the Supernatural books) and providing us, really, with the overarching theme of the season. And finishing it all off with and “I love you” from Cas which really broke me and brought me to tears, as well as a sneaky red-eyed glow from our favourite Lucifer meatsuit. I think Perez really setup the characters so well, Mary and Crowley especially, and wove a complex and nuanced tale to interlink everyone’s past, present and future. The actual style of storytelling was a genius move, and my heart will be ever-grateful to Davy Perez for working the line “Where’s Wally?” into an actual storyline. I’m really excited to see more writing from him in the future - and that’s really exciting.

Production. So I’ve been a really big fan on Andrew Dabb at the creative helm on this season (see my #dabfordabb post). I think that the production quality of the show is at it’s utmost and that the writing and directing have been blended seamlessly, particularly int his episode. The notion that an originally MOTW episode eventually divulged into a mythology episode (and what seems to be a particularly important part of Supernatural mythology) is not original, but the way the story broke into this crazy arc that links the Winchester’s past, present and future was a real stroke of smarts. The way this season has been headed is exciting because it’s really tapping into the boy’s acting chops, and stretching them so we have these episodes that manage to balance drama and fantasy with moments of comedy and family. Personally, I think season 8 was the least-good season of Supernatural (actually it’s more like the end half of season 7 and the first half of season 8) and slowly the show has picked up. I mean, trying to get back from the crescendo that was ‘Swan Song’ was never going to easy, especially with Kripke leaving, and for me since season 10 the show has really started to hit its stride once more - reminiscent of the earliest seasons of Supernatural. I’m not saying that it needs to be a replica of itself, but what the balance between the different types of storytelling and emotions was the key to the earliest seasons being successful. Now I know the a lot of people don’t like Mary’s return, but I think it’s really facilitated the season 2 ~vibez~ that season 12 has given me. There’s such strong notions of family and trust, and with Mary and Cas we see two people - one blood and one not blood - in positions usually held by the other. It’s clear after everything they’ve been through that Cas is family for the boy’s, but Mary has not only been absent, she is currently absent as well - and for the boy’s family is about being there for each other. This isn’t a ‘Mary Is Bad Or Good Discourse’, this is a ‘Mary’s Presence Is The Vehicle This Season Has Used Very Well To Tell Stories’. I’ve personally enjoyed her presences, and even when she’s not been the best mother from the boy’s perspective, Sam has done a great job of portraying her conflict with this. (Also she consider Cas one of her boys. End me now, please). I’m well pleased with the characterisation of Mary and, as dubious as her actions were this episode, they are going to make excellent story-fodder - and isn’t that what good tv is all about?

(A quick shoutout to one of my favourite song’s ‘Stuck in the Middle With You’ by Stealers Wheel. My dad and I love belting this out in the car. and surely the first two lines “Yeah, I don't know why I came here tonight/I got the feeling that something ain't right” are enough to make you smirk with knowing glee.)

TL:DR: Each paragraph became longer that the previous because I thought that this episode was stellar and I’m a happy little vegemite about it.

[jeckleanddean]

‘Family Feud’

So I thought this episode was trotting along fine. The intro was great and felt very season 1/season 2. The story was a really interesting filler and I am very glad that the timestream was restored. I’m glad Kelly’s story was picked up although the lack of Castiel in it was a bit strange, I was expecting him to pop up and try to convince Kelly to go with him.

But of course, this episode was about family.

Now, the Gavin-Rowena-Crowley story didn’t really get me until the end when Rowena revealed her motivations. I thought Gavin was sweet and they wrapped up his story nicely (I mean, we learnt from previous time-travelling episodes that nothing ever changes so that wasn’t a shock, but it was done well). Crowley and Lucifer’s chat has also obviously brought up some strange emotions in Crowley a la the last shot of him sitting on the bench. But for me Rowena stole it. There was a coldness and a cruelty that was so sincerely destructive I don’t know whether to applaud or punch something. They really explored the effect of the actions of a parent have on a child.

Segue into the Winchester saga. I am glad Mary told the boys what she’s been doing because it propels the story forward, and pushes the Winchesters into a new stage of their relationship. Now I’m a big Mary fan, and I’ve enjoyed her this season because she is challenging. She is not as the boys remember her, or as they “knew” her in the past when she was a young, happy, married ex-hunter. Now I don’t condone her actions, and it was the looks on Dean’s, but especially Sam’s face that destroyed me, His mother put him second. And not just second, second behind the people who were complicit in his kidnap and torture. Jared shone and my heart was broken. This was further compounded by Dean’s look of resignation and disappointment - and I don’t think it was for himself as much as it was on Sam’s behalf because the person Dean’s loves most int eh world is his little brother. His acceptance of Mary’s nefarious behaviour is additionally upsetting because of how much she means to him. Sam is broken and destroyed that she would place him second, that she would even consider working with the same organisation that hurt him so much -  what kind of motherly love can be there, then? Dean is coldly disappointed that she would do this to Sam, he has seen his mother/idol/legacy fall from a great height. And both hurt so much.

it’s funny because it’s almost like Mary is living out the boy’s earlier storylines - I will justify my actions because I’m saving lives even if it at the cost of my relationship with Sam/Dean.

Cheers for the feels Eugenie and Brad. 

[jeckleanddean]

me: I don't see why we need 3K gif capacity

me: *sees HD gif of Dean Winchester*

me: 3K gifs are a gift to us lesser mortals and I will never questions the increasing capacity of uploadable files on the website

[jeckleanddean]

*me at the start of 'the raid'*: you gonna die and you gonna die and YOU gonna die

[jeckleanddean]

The whole “you’re trapped here with us” line and that scene in general reminds me of how truly terrifying and proliferative Dean and Sam would be if they actually decided to be murderers.

[jeckleanddean]

I’m honestly losing my shit over First Blood because Castiel just took it up a fucking notch.

[jeckleanddean]

ily: i love you

ilysm: i love you so much

ilyilaofjppdmmlmbswydjrsyaiwhroalaic: i love you. i love all of you. just please please, don't make my last moments be spent watching you die. just run. save yourselves. and i will hold ramiel off as long as i can.